Diary of the War of the Pig

Diary of The War of The Pig, Adolfo Bioy Casares, E.P. Dutton, 1972

Set in present-day Argentina, this is a first-person novel about an old man caught up in a wave of disappearances and street terror by the young against the old. Published about 10 years before the "dirty war" ravaged Argentina for real, this tale of islands of human normalcy in an ocean of insanity stands for many of the darker parts of contemporary Latin American society. The story portrays Isidro Vidal, his buddies from the corner cafe, and the women, young and old, who offer a respite from terror and fear.

This is a very quiet sort of story; the violence is more implied than actual. It's intended more to show people's reactions to violence than the actual violence. I can give this book a rating of only pretty good.